Does Infidelity Affect Professional Behavior?

The Ashley Madison website hack in 2015 is a gift that keeps on giving to infidelity researchers. The website for married people looking to have an affair had the names and personal information of over 30 million of their users stolen and made public. Professors John Griffin, Samuel Kruger and Gonzalo Maturana from at University of Texas at Austin and Emory University sifted through the data released by hackers and singled out 11,000 police officers, brokers, white-collar criminals, and corporate executives. By cross checking their names against public records, it was discovered they were more than twice as likely to have committed violations of codes of conduct in their workplace than people who aren’t cheating on their partners.

“This is the first study that’s been able to look at whether there is a correlation between personal infidelity and professional conduct,” Kruger said. “We find a strong correlation, which tells us that infidelity is informative about expected professional conduct. Our results show that personal sexual conduct is correlated with professional conduct. Eliminating sexual misconduct in the workplace could have the extra benefit of contributing to more ethical corporate cultures in general.” The study proves what many already knew. If you’re willing to cheat on your wife—you’ll cheat in other aspects of your life.

Here are some of the interesting facts the research revealed:

Among police officers who engaged in misconduct, 2.9% were having an affair on the website

1% of people who broke US securities and Exchange Commission laws also had paid accounts on Ashley Madison

CEOs cheating on their spouses were twice as likely to be part of a securities lawsuit or have been found to have filed false financial statements

Brokers committing infidelity were more likely to have complaints on their records maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

3% of financial advisors were also looking for extracurricular love on Ashley Madison

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